The administration of Lal Masjid on Thursday unconditionally freed the remaining two policemen after holding them hostage for almost a week. The seminary students had abducted four officials while they were on duty in plainclothes last Friday in a bid to get released 11 detained seminary students.
However, two of the detained policemen were freed the next day as a goodwill gesture while the others two remained in their custody. "We have released these two policemen, ASI Aurangzaib Awan and Constable Jahangir, on Islamic and humanitarian grounds because their relatives, particularly their women had visited Jamia Hafsa and appealed for their safe release," said Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid.
"We are not cruel people like the government as none of the senior government official bothered to contact us for negotiations and nor did they release our students," who, have been arrested illegally. He ruled out any bargaining with the government in releasing the arrested cops saying that it is totally on humanitarian grounds and nothing else.
"By releasing the two policemen, we once again proved that we are not as cruel as the government is, " cleric said. He said that they provided best services to the cops and fed them with meal from standard hotels of their own choice.
He complained that the government has never given any facility to our detained students. He also warned of serious retaliation if law enforcement agencies took any further action against the seminary students. While talking to media, the two policemen said that they had been well treated by their captors and were happy to go home.